Rumors of an impending Sprint acquisition of T-Mobile have swirled for months as America's two underdog carriers have engaged in a not-so-private courtship, and it appears an announcement may be close, if you're inclined to believe Bloomberg.

The deal would allegedly value T-Mobile around $30 billion ($31.3 billion to be precise), though an exact agreement hasn't been reached as to a number. T-Mobile carries a little under $15 billion in debt and over $5 billion in cash, meaning Sprint's new parent firm Softbank will take on even more debt in an attempt to fortify a position against American wireless heavyweights AT&T and Verizon.

The deal would have to pass through the FTC and FCC before approval, hurdles that are by no means small when you're talking about an industry comprised of only four major national players across the whole of the US. Reducing that number to three could have repercussions that may not favor consumers or competition generally, so I wouldn't expect the feds to let this one slide without a second glance.

It's easy to see this as a potential repeat of what happened with AT&T and T-Mobile nearly three-and-a-half years ago, after regulators were unwilling to consider a merger, citing concerns of competition. (Of note, the T-Mo / Sprint deal will also carry a termination fee like the one AT&T paid after its deal collapsed.) The difference with Sprint? Already being an underdog, Sprint and Softbank will likely try to convince regulators that the merger will increase competition by providing AT&T and Verizon a real competitor at the national level, forcing them to lower rates and increase customer satisfaction to avoid losing subscribers. It's a tempting viewpoint, especially considering T-Mobile and Sprint have historically been the most aggressive carriers in terms of focus on value to subscribers, whereas AT&T and Verizon have tended to charge based on the reach of their networks and handset lineups (the latter advantage being one that has all but disappeared in recent years).

The T-Mobile faithful, too, are unlikely to take this news sitting down - the Uncarrier has developed a large group of subscriber-evangelists on the web touting the company's commitment to customers, value, and freedom of choice. Those are words you don't often hear associated with a wireless carrier. While Sprint has an "unlimited forever" commitment to its own customers, the carrier's lackluster infrastructure (owed in part to the major gaff that was WiMAX) and poor financial performance are reasons to be apprehensive about a deal. Still, Sprint's massive collection of wireless spectrum along with the leadership of Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son are worth considering. The ingredients for a supercharged next-generation wireless carrier are there, and a merger with T-Mobile could be just the thing Sprint needs to kickstart those ambitious plans.

David's phone is whatever is currently sitting on his desk. He is an avid writer, and enjoys playing devil's advocate in editorials, and reviewing the latest phones and gadgets. He also doesn't usually write such boring sentences.

Comments

the only interested duo-party in this is Verizon-AT&T.
Neither Sprint nor T-Mo WILL NOT SURVIVE IN THE LONG TERM if the merger falls through.

After the merger if Softbank is smart enough the combined entity should be REBRANDED = not Sprint, not T-Mobile, something new.

3 big players = better service+lower prices+better deals.

pfmiller

People were saying T-Mo wouldn't survive if the AT&T merger fell through, too.

NinoBr0wn

Why wouldn't they survive?

ProductFRED

Uhh, T-Mobile gets paid big money if the deal falls through. Plus they've been raking in customers. $30 5GB LTE plan? $70 unlimited everything? Consistently fast LTE? Wifi Calling? Free International Data? BYOD? Sprint's network can't even handle their customers. I couldn't care less what happens to Sprint. They're a failure of a company. T-Mobile is the one who started this whole price war. What's Sprint known for? Starting the 4G war and then failing miserably by providing 2G speeds.

jonathan3579

The only problem with your post was it's now $80 for unlimited everything rather than the $70 you mentioned.

hp420

Not prepaid...that's still $70 for 100% unlimiten LTE

Nico

Actually it is $80 for unlimited, the $70 provides 5gb at 4g lte speeds then throttled down.

dkbnyc

That's for new customers. We grandfathered folk are still paying $70 for unlimited everything.

ProductFRED

Still $70 on the no credit check prepaid. Either way, $70 and $80 are both way less than $110.

Starcube

That's because you signed up when it was still $70 for unlimited. That deal is no longer available.

Rob

I got in when - even with a credit check - the unlimited data plan was $70/month. I guess I stay there - as any changes now would mean I lose that and would pay $80/month to change back.

It seems the $10 bump also doubles the HotSpot allowance (to 5GB) whereas I believe I'm currently capped at 2.5GB per month.

ProductFRED

I've had it for a year. It was 2.5GB but now 3GB for the $70 if you look at my screenshot.

Rob

Yeah, my account says 3GB now too. I guess I never noticed it had been increased. Truthfully I don't use the HotSpot feature that much. At home it's Wi-Fi mostly with some LTE sprinkled in, and when out and about I usually have little need to turn on my Wireless AP, but that could change at any time. :)

Starcube

It's been $80 since early April, they raised the price.

Guest

That's not accurate. My $70 unlimited everything plan STARTS at $70 and the usual taxes and government fees that all carriers add-on then brings the price up to $76.85. On Sprint, I paid close to $100 a month for much less quality service, many interruptions in data connectivity and I only got 450 minutes of talk time.

jonathan3579

T-Mobile now charges $80 for unlimited everything and I was only speaking for their pricing.

apexx

TVC Mobile is the new service with no contract, with business opportunity available http://www.butler.tvcmobile.com ,we offer unlimited,text,talk,data 1g for$29.99,and $59.99 true unlimited,i had sprint for 13 years paying $120.00 month until i find TVC mobile in Jan, now am paying $59.99 for the same plan i had with sprint, am saving and making money with TVC selling the service.www.butler.tvcmobile.com, check it out.

BRIC_12

Tmobile is taking in customers... THAT DOES NOT MEAN MONEY! Tmobile has offered the world for nothing, no matter how many people go to their plans they will lose money. Tmobile needs softbanks deep pockets to run like they have been. Without cash for upgrades to the network, tmobile will have worse service than sprint, and sprint, well, yeah. This is either crucial for the survival of both or it could be a complete disaster, and it all depends on the fine details like who will be the new CEO

or we could go with reality…

"THAT DOES NOT MEAN MONEY! "

It really doesn't matter how many capitals you use. No; really. It doesn't.

What you seem hell-bent on ignoring (and attempting to get others to ignore through over-use of caps and emotives): Short term losses do not negate long term gains.

Sprint is a great company that needs to enhance it's network and it's really trying. If the merger goes through I see sprint becoming a much better company in terms of price and coverage. I have sprint and having unlimited data while a my friends with verizon are complaining about data limits is pretty nice

ProductFRED

I've had Sprint, and now have T-Mobile. Both have unlimited data. The difference is one is usable, and the other isn't (hint: I get 20-60 Mbps on T-Mobile LTE). Sprint buying T-Mobile will NOT reduce rates. They charge $110 for what T-mobile charges $70/$80 for.

They are adding customers but paying huge amounts to do so. They have over 15 billion in debt so obviously despite growing their customer base they are losing money

dkbnyc

In what bizarro world does less competition equal lower rates? Don't you get it? With the amount of debt incurred how does your thought hold water?

Daniel Trump

In what bizarro world? If two smaller (and relatively non-competitive) companies merge with each other, and then they can better compete against two larger companies, that increases competition among the larger companies. But clearly it will decrease competition among the small companies.

pretty sure this is covered somewhere in basic game theory and not bizarro world.

PoisonApple31

Brand new third company = third company with outrageous prices

Mike Palomba

No this is a great idea. Verizon and AT&T are out of control and have no competition. This is the best way to give them some.

Mike Palomba

No they need to let it go through

slurivariv

I don't "think" I care as long as my T-Mo service only gets better.

Nick Cannon

Sprint makes everything worse

ProductFRED

Used to work for them. Can confirm.

Scott

Used their service for 3 years, I can also confirm.

Barnassey

Can also confirm. When their network vision was being done in my area i couldnt call out to save my life . (literally had to use the GF's phone to call 911 when i had a really really bad asthma attack.) signal is now WORSE than it used to be.

Burn gurus

Umm must be your area then cos you can call 911 on any network, you can even do it without a simcard.

Uh, yeah…but…

...

Still need an actual signal, buddy.

max

unless you have a 10 year old phone it would work unless there was no verizon service there as well.

Barnassey

My apt that i live has issue with EVERY major carriers signals. Verizon included.

I miss call and pretty much every phone switches to 2g networks in order to try to get a signal.

Barnassey

You dont say? So where was i supposed to stick a sim card in a sprint epic 4g touch AKA the Sprint galaxy s II?

Sky

i never had them, but i have friends who do.. i can also confirm this.

Andrew

I couldn't agree more. What a terrible idea. How would they handle the different protocols? Would they keep cdma or switch to gsm or do both? if they go fully cdma, I will never even consider them no matter how low their prices go.

Nick Cannon

CDMA or GSM would change to LTE.

Andrew

No, Verizon and sprint are still cdma even though they have lte...at&t and T-Mobile are still gsm even though they have lte...

Nick Cannon

Neither ATT or VZ use both GSM & CDMA. When T-Mobile got CDMA from MetroPCS they changed CDMA to use as LTE. This is what would happen with Sprint.

Thanks, according to the article you posted, Sprint would stop either GSM or CDMA and change it to increase their LTE

Barnassey

No they changed from CDMA to gsm/LTE.

hp420

they changed to gsm...lte is not like cdma or gsm...those are cellphone technology standards. LTE is a wireless data standard...two totally different things.

Barnassey

LTE is part of the GSM standard buddy.

hp420

That's exactly the point I was saying. It's an internet standard...not an alternative to GSM or CDMA.

Barnassey

You really show your ignorance about this. LTE is an evolution of GSM. it is for voice and data. it is NOT an internet standard. Please refrain from commenting in the future.

h4rr4r

No, LTE is GSM. Once VoLTE replaces the CDMA voice on VZW they will be pure GSM.

hp420

+1billion!!!

bearballz

Liar!

Mike Palomba

I disagree I have them and I have seen a drastic improvement in service since the network upgrades.

Heimrik

Ugh... don't bet on it....

Justin Foster

I said God forbid about this on Droid life, but the way it's explained here is a little more tolerable, desirable even... Hmm

http://jordanhotmann.com/ Jordan Hotmann

I have mixed feelings

Thomas Su

Time to buy a phone a phone that supports all both Sprint and T-Mobile LTE bands, like the Nexus 5!

David Li

Goodbye Uncarrier, was nice knowing ya.

hoosiercub88

Let's be honest.. making T-Mobile as financially desirable as possible was always the key interest from Deutsche Telekom for the whole 'uncarrier' ad campaign. Now that they've gained some traction, DT can offload it and make a profit. Anyone who ever thought otherwise was kidding themselves.

You first.

Let's be honest...you're still guessing.

Some of us believe even *they* don't know what the hell they are doing...

http://www.dastardlyreport.com/ Ryan Joseph

It all comes down to quality of service and price. I don't really care what company's name is on the bill, as long as my service doesn't get worse, and my price doesn't go up.

Bariman43

That's the thing though, with decreased competition, you're going to get higher rates. The only reason you're getting such a good deal on your phone now was because T-mobile and Sprint were trying to compete with AT&T and Verizon.

http://www.dastardlyreport.com/ Ryan Joseph

Yeah, that's the real concern. I'm hopeful that won't happen, and I don't want to shout down the possibility of this deal prematurely... but in reality, higher prices are probably what we'll facing in the years to come.

Heimrik

Exactly. Sprint and AT&T didnt want Tmobile necessarily for the company itself. They want Tmobile out of the way.....

lordmerovingian

Extra $30 billion of debt just to get Tmo out of the way?

Heimrik

Yep. You bet. Tmobile has the big boys scared. A gain of 2.4 MILLION+ customers in ONE quarter? THATS a serious threat to corporate greed... *ahem* I mean SprintATTVerizon....

Heimrik

You bet. Tmobile has added 2.1 MILLION+ customers in just the last quarter. And Sprint, Verizon, and ATT have all lost record amounts of customers due to their shady business tactics and outrageous prices. Tmobile is doing wireless service the way it should be done. More choice, more freedom, no entrapping contracts, lower costs. Tmobile is a huge threat. Why do you think ATT and Sprint want them so badly? They want them gone in order to continue with their scams.

Mike Palomba

Even after the merge Att and Verizon will still have more customers. Also sprint has said they will have a massive price war if the deal goes through

Forget_you

less choices never equals lower prices. that is a fact

Heimrik

Well sorry but thats just not how it works. Company brand names ARE tied into quality, service, and price. What if AT&T got their way and acquired T-mobile? Most know EXACTLY what would happen. Everything that T-mobile did right would be reversed or scrapped. Because customer loyalty and freedom doesnt generate the rape worthy profits they intend to collect. Example being carrier locked devices. You want to use AT&T or Verizon service? Well you'll have to buy THEIR device which is also used as a tiny company marketing billboard at the customers expense.....

Kendrick Vargas

Unless the people that made T-Mobile great were left in charge, I don't see how this is a good thing. Sprint is where it is because it has made some bad infrastructure decisions. And the last thing I want on the notification bar of my phone is a frantically spinning orb letting me know I have the 4Gee's.

I would like to say I'd like to leave T-Mobile if this happened and things started changing, but the truth is there's no where you can go. T-Mobile was the go to for people that liked openness. They have always been google friendly with the Nexus line (and that is not overlooked in any small part by the community), and there has always been a bit of a renegade attitude to their business that just adds to the spices that attracts said community.

The only thing I can hope for is that with T-Mobile's merger with MetroPCS, and other smaller regional providers getting soaked up by AT&T, the FCC will see this as a dwindling marketplace for competition. But I have less hope of this than I did when AT&T tried to buy them out.

The only way I could support this or see this going through, is if John legere and co are at the reins of this after the merger. I don't understand why T-Mobile and sprint can't just have a network sharing agreement like they do in the UK. Bid on spectrum together and let both parties use it. That way they could both run independently and not have to take all those other risks involved

http://www.androidpolice.com/ Shawn De Cesari

I just hope the T-Mobile brand would be the one that survives. I'd be embarrassed to say I was a customer of Sprint. The Sprint brand just has too much negative stigma associated with it. If the T-Mobile brand survives and Legere remains CEO, I say bring it. If Sprint survives, I'm walking.

Ken Conaway

I just left Sprint last month after getting tired of their false promises of Network Vision upgrades. I was paying over 115 a month and getting subpar service, numerous dead spots and dropped calls alot. If this deal goes through, I can see Verizon and AT&T or the MVNOs picking up subscribers who don't want to be with anything related to Sprint.

ProductFRED

Sprint used to be cheap. Now they're only a few bucks cheaper than going with Verizon or AT&T, and they have horrible service.

Lexster

That's the exact reason I left. Was promised 4G in Cincinnati when I got the Evo LTE and then nothing for over a year only to see tiny towns getting it in the middle of nowhere while I couldn't even get service IN MY HOUSE without a femtocell. Screw Sprint. I don't want them.

JonShipman

Go back to Voicestream

amnesia

The lamer brand usually wins. Just look at Cingular and AT&T.

kamiller42

As a Sprint $25/mo framily member with unlimited talk and text and 1GB good LTE, I'm happy.

JG

Shawn De Cesari that's pretty much my take on the merger as well. From what I've read elsewhere, Legere is already slated to be the CEO so I'm hoping that means he'll at least continue the Un-Carrier campaign, regardless of what name the new company operates under. Which I think they need to do in order to be a persistent pressure on AT&T and Verizon to keep competition up. After all, it was thanks to the uncarrier strategy that T-Mobile was the only company to add customers last quarter (or whenever the stats were from).

My ideal result would be T-Mobile as it is now, bringing only Sprint's spectrum and it's Framily Plan (if I'm not mistaken, it works out to be cheaper than T-Mobile's). They need to push through to get their entire spectrum range over to LTE as soon as possible, but mainly focus on cleaning up a nation wide 20+20 Mhz grouping so they can deploy their 150Mbps LTE as soon as possible. That'll blow Verizon's 90Mbps XLTE away, almost doubling the speed...

wideopn11

NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! I left Verizon for Tmobile not Sprint. Sprint sucks, I don't want anything to with them. Since I can't use my Nexus 5 on verizon I guess I will be forced to AT&T. Lesser of 2 evils. FML.

hoosiercub88

Really depends on how you choose to look at it.. they're both pretty damn evil. I use Verizon because they're the only carrier that actually works where I live/work.

Pootis Man

Nooooooooooooo!!

Nick Cannon

AT&T offered $39B

Barnassey

Thats actually a good point why are they offering so little when tmobile has WAY more customers than the last time.

Forget_you

no, please I don't want to hear this bad news. Sprint cdma network is an utter joke along with their LTE speeds. Sprint is going downhill and losing customers left and right to t-mobile. This is about swallowing up a competitor so they won't tank. Son just put to much money into sprint and now he doesn't want it to turn into a bad investment because tmobile ruined all their plans. From what I hear Japans wireless industry is even less competitive than ours and softbank runs their network at high rates and doesn't let customers unlock their phones even after payed off. I would not trust this guy with anything he says. and volte isn't even near becoming main stream. their cdma garbage will be up and running for another 5 years at least. sprint is a joke and I hope this is rejected. I just hope this doesn't ruin or stop tmobile from upgrading all their towers or spreading more coverage through the approval process.

ekh

At first it was announced as Softbank making the purchase, but if it's Sprint making the purchase I got some problems. Let's hope Legere stays on.

Forget_you

softbank is majority owner of sprint so same thing

Matthew Fry

If Sprint buys T-Mobile I'm moving to Europe*

*not really. I'll just bitch a lot.

Heimrik

This is NOT "helping the market". Its going to hurt the wireless consumer market by limiting options for the public. T-mobile will rise all on its own because it has earned it; NOT because it gets bought up by a slightly larger company. They earned their success by giving the people what they wanted and needed. Staying loyal to CUSTOMERS, not profits....

Good_Ole_Pinocchio

It's always about profits. And Tmobile isn't rising anywhere on its own. They can't compete with Verizon and ATT not by a long shot.

Heimrik

I think youre wrong brosef. Tmobile has stolen MILLIONS of Verizon's and ATT's customers in just a year.... The public want a safe haven from corporate greed and Tmobile is just that. If Tmobile no threat to the big boys then why do you think ATT and Sprint want to buy them? If they're so insignificant? Its simple. They want to buy them out to GET them out.

Gordon

Maybe now T-Mobile will cover more than 25 people. In the long run this will help ATT & VZ customers but Sprint & T-Nocoverage customers bet will see a slight increase in cost. I think overall everyone could benefit

http://www.scottcolbert.com/ ScottColbert

No one will benefit, you're deluding yourself if you think so.

h4rr4r

T-Mobile covers most of the people in the USA. Most people live in urban or suburban areas.

HolyFreakingCrap

If sprint buys TMO I am out, so long 30 dollar plan. I refuse to be a sprint customer.

chris125

Sprint sucks, they are just too lazy to use what they have and actually build out their network. They have all that spectrum and do nothing with it

While normally a smaller number of competitors is a bad thing, this is necessary for a carrier to have the muscle to actually hurt vzw and att. T-Mobile might be doing better than it was a few years ago, but coverage outside major cities is still grossly lacking and they still don't have the clout to take on the big 2.

On the other hand, with Sprint's piss poor network, well, I'd be scared if I was a T-Mobile customer whose infrastructure was probably going to get destroyed in order to carry loads from both networks. In the immediate future, I can only see this causing loads of headaches for T-Mobile customers while the networks are integrated.

As far as devices, most newer Sprint phones have GSM capability so they should be able to hop onto T-Mobile bands with an OTA, further degrading T-Mobile customers' service.

After the growing pains though, there's a sliver of a chance a new carrier would emerge that can knock vzw of its pedestal, and I would absolutely love to see that happen.

ProductFRED

What you can expect with Sprint now and in the future:

- Network congestion (since 2010/2011)

- Phones that reject other carrier's SIMs

- A GSM/CDMA/FDD-LTE/TDD-LTE monstrosity if this goes through

- Higher rates

Sprint is a failure of a company. They're trying to buy T-Mobile because T-Mobile is so successful, and really because it's the only carrier they can try to buy out without being laughed at. They don't know how to manage their network at all. I'm speaking as a former store employee (tech & salesperson), and customer of two years (some family members are still with them).

If you're in an area where T-Mobile has good service, like here in NYC, you're paying $70 for unlimited everything, unthrottled. With Wifi Calling. And free international data. Voice over LTE is on now too. No contract. Bring any phone you want. And I get like 20-50 Mbps on average lately. Now imagine Sprint offloading all of their customers onto T-Mobile's network. Have you ever been on Sprint? Their LTE is virtually non existent, even in major cities. It's T-Mobile HSPA+ speed at best if it's available. Using their 3G is like using a 56k modem, both in terms of speed and latency.

Simply put, their network cannot handle their customers.

So now you're gonna have T-Mobile's millions of customers and Sprint's millions of customers on one combined network that can't handle it. And if it can handle those customers, you're going to experience severe network degradation if you're an existing T-Mobile customer.

And if we're going with Sprint pricing, your $30 5GB plan will probably be gone. And your $70 unlimited everything will probably be around $100+. Actually, Sprint's Unlimited "All In" play is $110 a month + tax.

It really only "benefits" Sprint customers because their network simply can't get worse than it is.

Mr.Fantasitic

That is not accurate. With the aquisition of clearwire 2.5ghz sprint has more spectrum than all 4 carriers. No reason to offload anybody.

hoosiercub88

2.5Ghz spectrum is useless... Verizon be like, #datpenetrationdoe

ProductFRED

Was gonna say. 2.5 GHz has such little building penetration and distance.

hp420

More spectrum still hasn't even helped them any, though...so what's that tell you???

Do not repeat the mistakes us Canadians are regretting. You DO NOT WANT 3 big players. You want as much competition as you can. Our 4th largest national carrier has 7 million less subscribers than the smallest of the Big 3. That's how bad the lack of competition is up here. It's so bad that we have one of the highest rates in the world and honestly, you guys don't know bill shock until you've been forced to deal with the ROBELUS cartel.

max

Looks like the european countries that went from 4 to 3 major players all had prices drop though. it's possible that's because the size of the countries over there. I'm cautiously optimistic, though I'll try to stay grandfathered until I see where price goes. (somewhat happy sprint customer)

Barnassey

European countries actually regulate their carriers, unlike the us.

DW Duck

I don't think it will fly, but the billion bucks won't hurt TMO when the deal falls through.

https://plus.google.com/+EvanFeldman95/ Evan Feldman

I hope this gets approved. AT&T/Verizon have had it to easy.

Mike Palomba

I agree it's like honda and toyota. They are dominating the market but kia and Hyundai are working hard to change that

coolsilver

I rather have #framilyfeud than sprint in my t-mobile.

Aki I.

Oh god.

[A]dri[A]n

I don't see the FCC allowing this, but if they do, I would gladly sit back and watch this disaster :)

hoosiercub88

Am I the only one thinking... Sprint has $30B???

BigMixxx

They will let this happen. The divestiture of the overlap will be massive and it will be mostly on sprints end (underperforming areas) and T mobiles (underperforming areas)

LIB4EVER

I have been with T-Mobile for almost 10 years, had both Sprint and AT&T in the pass....Time to mover to Verizon...Sprint sucks

Barnassey

People dont understand another important causality with sprint and tmobile merging. The Nexus line. Specifically how most of them were designed for tmobile's and att's networks. Considering sprints stance on sim unlocking (currently) many phones would not be functional on other carriers.

Kehnin Dyer

know who should buy t-mobile? google.

hp420

Fuck Sprint!! I left them because they raped my wallet every single month relentlessly, and since switching to tmobile I can honestly say I've never been happier!! The service and coverage are nearly identical near me, data speeds literally tripled (3g to 3g comparison) andI pay 1/3 the price I did to Sprint. I would rather have no phone than use any of the other 3 ever again!!! I've had all 4, and Tmobile is ahead of the rest by a country mile. They aren't even on the same playing field!! Once again...FUCK SPRINT!!!!! And FUCK CDMA even harder!!!!

ew

Funny how the capitalists have less choices than socialist countries.

Defenestratus

The US stopped being a capitalist economy after the Wilson administration.

Paul

Every economy that is based on infinite growth (and all are, thus all are also pyramid schemes) is kind of capitalist.
On a side note, infinite growth isn't sustainable, it collides at some time with finite resources.

BRIC_12

Tmobile is taking in customers... THAT DOES NOT MEAN MONEY! Tmobile has offered the world for nothing, no matter how many people go to their plans they will lose money. Tmobile needs softbanks deep pockets to run like they have been. Without cash for upgrades to the network, tmobile will have worse service than sprint, and sprint, well, yeah. This is either crucial for the survival of both or it could be a complete disaster, and it all depends on the fine details like who will be the new CEO.

jpgar

Sprint sucks and would be horrible thing for it to buy tmobile i am barely switching from sprint to tmobile bext month and would suck to have a working phone for a while then have it start to fail soon after maybe tmobile should get sprint instead many people would ve bettr off

http://www.volkswagen.de/ Quailallstar

No thank you! Leave T-Mobile alone.

CeluGeek

I was considering switching to T-Mobile but now I'll stick with AT&T. I don't want draconian CDMA carriers dictating what phones I can use with their network and you can bet whatever that Sprint is going to switch T-Mobile to their network and not the other way around.

It's going to be a sad day when AT&T is the only choice for GSM service.

Derrick Hodges

Please God NO!!!!!

bpcooper14

If this goes through, convert the entire network to gsm and get away from cdma, put the T-mobile management group in place. If what I read somewhere is correct (I can't remember if it was this article or on another site) DT will still maintain a 15% interest in T-Mobile so there would at least be a slice of continuity with the current trend with the company structure and vision. I'm not sure what spectrum Softbank's networks run on in Japan but if the configuration of the hardware is similar, maybe this would also open the door to more international plans with world phones.

Mike_Mc

Carly Foulkes better be included in any deal/ merger!

J.J.

Hey lets merge with tmo and drag them down with us. NO! now sit down and shut up.

Steven Santinelli

I Don't Get it. Sprint, you want to be #1? Spend 30 friggin billion dollars on upgrading your infrastructure. Seriously! I have a better signal here in NH when I'm ROAMING! No, lets go buy T-Mobile which is running GSM and has a crappy network as well. Two non-compatible networks, Sweet.... :(

Chris

This is such bullsh*t. I just don't believe it. The FCC even SAID IN THE FRIGGING ATT BUYOUT THEY WANT 4 CARRIERS!!!!!! Shut up with this. And if it did happen? I'd go to AT&T. As much as I hate them and have resisted them, their service and coverage is GOOD. They're just evil and prices are high so I've avoided them!

Even regulators in japan criticize softbank for their lack of competition in their home market and keeping prices high

"SoftBank used to be a competition driver," said a communications ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "But now it's completely spoiled by the three-company oligopoly."

They will do the same here. son is not some knight in shining armor here to save the us wireless industry.

jeffhesser

Uncarrier 5.0 - take the money and RUN!!!

Mike Palomba

This is a great idea. I honestly think that if sprint buys tmobile they will become a bigger more reliable company and be able to compete with tmobile. In the beginning it will be rough with the switching over of the technology but once they finish that I think the network will be great and I doubt prices will rise by much if at all

Sam

Not looking forward to this. Hopefully this doesn't go through so my tmobile bill can stay a nice 70$ a month. And there deals are unbelievable. Sprint is garbage and will forever be garbage! Hopefully this deal fails!

Brendan Ward

wish a&t brought tmobile so that they could have better coverage glad tmobile still has unlimited data but is 80$

Heimrik

Tmobile has added 2.1 MILLION+ customers in just the last quarter. And Sprint, Verizon, and ATT have all lost record amounts of customers due to their shady business tactics and outrageous prices. Tmobile is doing wireless service the way it should be done. More choice, more freedom, no entrapping contracts, lower costs. Tmobile is a huge threat. And thats why ATT and Sprint want them so badly... They want them bought out to snuff them out; all in order to continue with their scams.

mkelter2011

Sprint is not exactly the company to encourage customer satisfaction in the marketplace. Since Softbank bought the company, customer dissatisfaction has skyrocketed. I suspect that Softbank has ulterior motives that include completely wrecking T-Mobile the way Softbank totally wrecked Sprint.

cigex

Since sprint is pushing the deal t mobile is making the rules. If the deal goes well, the company will operate under t mobile not sprint. They know what the name t mobile means now in this generation